page_title: Battle of Lechfeld (910)
section_title: Battle
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Lechfeld (910) / Battle
caption_attribution_description: English: After the German cavalry was annihilated, the infantry and the kings guard arrived on the battlefield. The fast moving Hungarian archers encircle the infantry, which tries to run way, but it is almost completely destroyed. The kings mounted guard manage to save the king, by retreating in haste.
context_page_description: The Battle of Lechfeld in 910, was an important victory by a Magyar army over Louis the Child's united Frankish Imperial Army. Located south of Augsburg, the Lechfeld is the flood plain that lies along the Lech River. At this time the Grand Prince of Hungary was Zolta, Zoltán of Hungary, but there is no record of him taking part in the battle.
  This battle is one of the greatest examples of the success of the famous feigned retreat tactic used by nomadic warriors, and an example of how psychological warfare can be used effectively.
  The battle appears as the first Battle of Augsburg in Hungarian historiography.
context_section_description: On the dawn of 12 June 910, the Hungarian horsemen made a surprise attack, shooting arrows from a distance on the kings sleeping camp, killing many Germans with their arrows in their sleep, or quite after they woke up. But this attack was only a minor preparatory, so called swarming attack in order to diminish the fighting spirit of the Germans, after which they retreated to their camp.
  The Germans prepared for battle, making their battle formation, and it began, with the Hungarians, probably in small swarming archer groups, attacking on horses, shooting arrows on the Germans, who protected themselves with their wall of shields. After a while the Hungarians retreated feigning defeat, and when the German heavy mounted horsemen pursued them, they shot arrows back on the Germans, killing many of them, while their horses continued to retreat. In the course of the day, this tactic was used several times. Probably the German army was composed of infantry and heavy cavalry, with heavy shields, lances, and swords, while the Hungarians were all light cavalry, with bow and arrow as their main weapon. This is why when the Germans attacked, only the heavy cavalry pursued the Hungarians, while the infantry formed a solid wall, and stayed in their places. Because of their light weapons and armor, Hungarians were more mobile and quick, but at the same time more vulnerable to the Germans' heavy weapons. But their nomadic composite bows were much more superior than the European bows, and because of this they could kill the enemy with their arrows, without being reached by the Europeans. Also the Hungarian horses were quicker than the German ones, because they had less weight to carry. But still, in order to lure the German soldiers after them, the Hungarians had to move very close, and even start short hand-to-hand skirmishes with the superior Germans, in the places of the defensive line, where they saw weaknesses, then to run, when the situation started to be severe, convincing the enemy that he is about to win, persuading him to pursue them, and with this to break his battle formation, giving them the opportunity to exploit this, and inflict heavy losses on them.
  It was 7 in the evening, which is more than 12 hours from the start of the battle (at dawn), and Louis the Child thought that his troops were about to win the battle. At this moment the Hungarians started a general attack, then again used the famous feigned retreat tactic of the nomadic warriors, starting to retreat in haste, like they were defeated. We do not know for sure why, but at this point the Germans were very sure that they had won the battle, and started a general attack on the retreating Hungarians, leaving their well-protected defensive lines, and breaking their battle formation in their rush to catch up to the Hungarians, who retreated in ordered lines, very careful to not disorganise their battle order.
  Maybe they did not want to wait for another night, thinking that the Hungarians will shoot arrows on them all the night, destroying their camp, or they were tired by the unusual length of the battle (it lasted all day, from dawn to evening), in the hot summer sun, or they were traumatised by the ever-growing losses inflicted on them by the Hungarian arrows, or on the contrary the Hungarians, with their monotone, apparently unsuccessful attacks against their lines aroused in them a self-conceit that they are about to win the battle. Nevertheless, this shows that the Hungarians used again psychological warfare tactics, making the enemy troops to be frightened, or to lose their will to fight, or to be exaggeratedly self-conceited, which made them easier to defeat. The Hungarians also used psychological warfare in another battle that occurred 11 years earlier: the Battle of Brenta River, feigning defeat in an early skirmish, then running away, showing to the enemy commanders that they had despaired, then sending envoys to them asking for forgiveness, with this convincing the enemy to feel pretentious and comfortable, then striking in an unexpected moment and destroyin
caption: The last phase of the battle.
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